Everything you ever wanted to know about negative keywords For those of you looking to refine your AdWords campaigns and improve your return on investment, we have some helpful tips on negative keywords for you. A negative keyword is a special kind of keyword matching option that allows you to prevent your ad from appearing when the specific terms are a part of the user’s search. Some advertisers have told us they’re nervous about using negative keywords because they fear it will reduce the traffic to their sites. If your goal is simply to increase traffic, then you may not want to use negative keywords. But if your goal is to find qualified leads, negative keywords will help filter out some of the traffic that you may not want. For example, if you're selling clothes, but you don't sell shorts, you can make ‘shorts’ a negative keyword. That way you won’t show your ad to a shopper looking for shorts (which may help you save money). You can learn more about how to choose negative keywords here. Negative keywords can apply at two different levels: campaign-level and Ad Group-level. You can learn more about how to add negative keywords to your account here. If you want even more info, check out the advanced Google Advertising Professionals lesson on Exact Match vs. Negative Match optimizations. Every search engine advertiser should be using negative keywords in their Pay Per Click (PPC) campaigns and/or Ad Groups. Negative keywords are words and phrases that you do not want searchers to associate with your products and services. When you add negative keywords to your PPC campaigns your ads will not be served if those words are part of the user’s search query. Not only does this benefit you by directly saving money on wasted clicks, it also improves the click through rate (CTR) of your keywords/ads, which helps improve your ad quality scores in Google, Yahoo, and MSN. Improved quality scores can help you with bidding strategies by allowing you to bid less than a competitor (who is not as knowledgeable, skilled, intelligent, talented, sophisticated, etc. as you are), and maintain high/higher ad positions on a search results page. Over my 6+ years managing Pay Per Click campaigns, I have built up a list of negative keywords that are useful when conducting B2B PPC campaigns (I am providing some of my list only :)). This list is by no means exhaustive, and each company has its own unique market positioning. So, do not use this list of negative keywords indiscriminately!!! The list of B2B negative keywords below is meant to be a resource for you, and a starting point when you are deciding which words you do not want associated with your ads. Avoiding Job Seekers Prevent your ads from appearing for common employment and career-related searches: career careers employment hiring intern interns internship internships job jobs recruiter recruiting resume resumes salaries salary Reference Keywords Don’t waste money on people looking for information that is only loosely related to your products/services or industry: about definition diagram example examples history map maps sample samples what are what is No Research & Stats Assuming you have a limited advertising budget, avoid people doing research, and make sure your are using your advertising $$ to generate sales and qualified leads: association associations book books case studies case study guide guides journal journals magazine magazines metrics news research review reviews statistics stats success stories success story tutorial tutorials white paper white papers We Don’t Provide Education Prevent your ads from being shown to people looking for classes and education: class classes college colleges course courses education school schools training universities university No Bargains These negative keywords will help if you are positioned as a premium provider. If you do want visitors for these keyword concepts, create an additional campaign or ad group to focus on these discount concepts, and specifically bid on keywords that contain these words. And then make sure to add this list of negative keywords to the campaigns or ad groups that do not target the discount audience: bargain cheap clearance close out close outs closeout closeouts discount discounted free inexpensive liquidation odd lots overstock remainder remainders Avoiding Price Shoppers You may want visitors to your site looking for pricing and/or quotes, but if not, make sure to add in these words as negative keywords to avoid prospects who may be more concerned with price than with quality or service: price prices pricing quote quotes Avoiding DIY In many industries there are “do-it-yourselfers” or hobbyists who are searching for information on how to take on a project themselves. It’s a good idea to screen out this audience if you do not cater to it: craft crafts create creating hand made handmade home homemade how to make making Selling Commercial Software This is a tricky one. If you are a company selling commercial or enterprise software, a) you are likely to want to avoid the thousands of software developers who are looking for free resources, and b) you want to avoid confusion with consumers looking for tools and home-use products. Use this list as a starting point, but also brainstorm and use keyword suggestion tools to find potential negative keywords that are specific to your software space: burn burner cd code community desktop developer developers disk download (if you don’t have one) downloads (if you don’t have any) dvd error file files forum free freeware game games gnu hack hacks libraries library microsoft ( 🙂 ) open source public domain retail retail retailer retailers shareware shortcut shortcuts template templates tip tips video windows Manufacturing & Industrial This is a very broad list of words, covering many different concepts related to manufacturing and industrial companies. Use this list to start the process of generating negative keywords specific to your industry, product lines, and business model. antique consumer export exporter exporters hobby import importer importers measurement model models regulations rent rental repair repairs retail retailer retailers rules safety specifications specs standards store toy toys used vintage Product Materials Obviously not all of these materials will apply to one business. I created this list of product materials as a reminder to screen out searches for product types that a company does not offer. One might wonder if it is OK to not screen for these in the hopes that someone will search for one type of product, but be convinced to buy a different type once they see what is available. Most B2B marketers have limited PPC budgets, so usually it is a better idea to only show your ads to people who don’t have a specific alternative to your products already in mind: aluminum ceramic cotton fabric glass gold iron leather metal paper plastic rubber silver stainless steel steel stone vinyl wood Legal/Law It is probably a good idea to prevent your ads from being shown to people looking for information related to legislation and regulations. There will be cases where this might not apply, especially if your product/service solves a regulatory/compliance issue (and if you have a landing page on your site that speaks to the legal issue AND provides a conversion action right there on the page): act act of compliance law laws legal legislation regulation regulations Other Negative Keywords B2B Marketers May Consider Here are just a few more words that seem to come up in B2B search advertising campaigns... club clubs consultants consulting gift gifts online photo photograph photographs picture pictures send sending Remember, the list above is not comprehensive, and does not apply to all B2B marketers. Please add your suggestions to this list! Click Here For More Details about PPC